BitNami Offers Beta Invites to New Cloud Hosting Program

Open source stack vendor BitNami is rolling out a new cloud hosting package and wants to hand out beta invitations to developers and sysadmins. The new program gives users a way to deploy BitNami Stacks -- pre-rolled software bundles that include a Web app and all its necessary software -- right on the Amazon EC2 cloud.

Hosting a stack in the cloud may be preferable for companies that want an easy way to manage Web apps off-premises. BitNami Cloud Hosting lets users manage several servers from one control panel, create automated backups with a one-click restore, and burn a master server image that can be easily duplicated or customized. With Amazon EC2's pay-as-you-go arrangement, businesses can shut down apps when they're not in use to save money.

For now, cloud hosting is limited to Amazon EC2, but BitNami expects to add support for other clouds later this year. To snag an invitation to the beta program, sign up at the company's Web site. If you're a good fit, they'll send one your way.